A Day at the Pool: The HoagieAbigail Edition
by Khallox
Summary: So this is a story I wrote for stoplight-melody's contest. Its how I think hoagie and abby found out they had feelings for eachother. In addition, hoagies life is basically awesome. Hes a lifeguard. Enjoy!


Summer

"Check your twenty, Skyhawk. You've got two fighters coming in hot." the Captain's voice crackled over Hoagie's headset.

"I got 'em captain." He put on his helmet and slid his tinted visor down. "Engines are good. Switching to manual flight. Guns are hot. Repeat: guns are hot!" He pulled up on the throttle and began climbing into the sky. "Alrighty, boys, here we go." Hoagie's jet turned sharply down and began spiraling towards the oncoming fighters. "Locking on! I've got a lock!" He squeezed the trigger and the dual machine guns started to fire.

One of the jets exploded into a ball of flame as the other returned fire. "Executing evasive maneuvers!" Hoagie leaned against the joystick as his plane barrel rolled out of the path of whizzing bullets. "Returning fire! Missile are active!" He flipped a switch on his joystick. "I've got a lock!" Hoagie pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Panicking, he tried again, but still nothing happened. "Captain! There's a malfunction with the missiles! They're not working!"

The captain's familiar voice spoke over the headset. "It's okay Skyhawk, don't panic— Look mommy! I'm a dinosaur!" Cold pool water splashed across Hoagie's face.

He woke up with a start. His brother had just done a cannonball into the water. "Billy! What did I tell you about jumping into the pool right in front of me?" He yawned and looked down at his pudgy little brother behind his dark sunglasses.

"Sorry, Hoagie. But look! I'm a ichthysaurus!" Billy jumped out of the water and landed on his back. Hoagie rolled his eyes. Why did he always have to be around weird people? Billy had been pretending to be different dinosaurs all week and it was getting annoying.

"Hogarth Pennywhistle Gilligan Junior! Were you just sleeping, even though I told you multiple times to watch your little brother?" Hoagie's mother gave him a stern look. She wasn't mean, and hardly ever got angry, but ever since his other little brother Tommy went to boarding school, he had had to watch four year old Billy every hour of the day.

"Mom, he's fine. And can't you see that I'm tanning?" Hoagie rolled onto his stomach and immediately felt sharp pains all over his body. "Ouch! Ah! Damn!" He stood up quickly and ran into the shade.

"HOGARTH! Watch your language around the children! And put some sunscreen on, you'll get sunburned." His mother threw him a tube of sunblock, and Hoagie looked at the bottle. He saw that it was SPF 80, and couldn't recall seeing that high of a number anywhere in his life. He tried to put some on, but it wouldn't completely rub into his skin, so he had bright white patches all over his body.

As Hoagie was trying to fix this new predicament, he heard a girl's voice behind him. "It looks like you was a little late in puttin' on some sunscreen, boy." He turned around so fast that his foot got caught on the ground and he fell over. It was Abby Lincoln, his biggest crush from school.

"H-H-Hiya, Abby. Uh, how are you?" stammered Hoagie. His sunburned face was starting to get redder and redder as he sat up.

"Oh, I'm just fine, you know. Places to see, people to meet." Abby put her hand on her hip and looked down at him with an amused expression from under her red hat. She knew Hoagie liked her, and seeing him being so awkward gave her the same feelings. "So how are you, boy?"

Hoagie's tongue felt thick in his mouth. He was never good at talking to girls. "I-I'm good. You know, cool. Well actually I'm hot, but you know, not that kind of hot, it's just that I'm sunburned, but yeah…"

She laughed sat next to him on the ground. "I got a few sodas for myself, and it looks like ya could use one." Abby opened her bag and pulled out two cold cans of Lemon Zing. Hoagie took a can and opened it with loud pop. They sat back in the shade and watched the fluffy, white clouds of the blue July sky float in the wind.

Abby felt like she needed to say something, but she wasn't exactly sure how to word it. She was sitting next to Hoagie Gilligan, the boy she'd been thinking about ever since school had gotten out. She finally mustered up the courage to get a few syllables out. "Hey, Hoagie," she muttered.

He pointed up at the sky and said "I think that one looks like an airplane."

"That IS an airplane." Abby rolled her eyes and smiled. She still had no idea what she was going to say, but she knew that she had to tell him what she was feeling. It was complicated. "Hoagie?"

"Yeah?" He rolled over on his side and winced as his sunburned skin touched the ground.

Abby looked down at the ground and quietly said "I don't know how to say this, but… I like you, and I don't want ya to change, okay?"

Hoagie's heart skipped a beat. He'd imagined this day for months. "Of course, and I mean, I really like you to, I mean, unless you meant like, like like, well then I guess I'd still like you I mean, but like—,"

Abby put her finger to his mouth. "Hoagie, just say it."

Hoagie melted at her touch, and instantly relaxed. "I'll never change, Abby." He looked into her dark eyes and they both smiled.


End file.
